Her mother, Elaine Le Blanc-Speir, née Palmier, "remarried a cruel and emotionally unstable" alcoholic.
[3] She was an artist and supervisor at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, MO, and Palo Alto, California.
[1] About her work in Eliza's Kindergarten Surprise (Amazon Children's Publishing, 2007), Kirkus Reviews said, "Speir’s acrylic paintings rely on bright, bold colors to capture the reader’s attention.
[4] Publishers Weekly wrote, "a spare, cartoon quality evokes an easygoing, childlike feel".
[5] Kirkus Reviews noted how in Teacher: Showing, Helping, Caring (Marshall Cavendish, 2009), "Speir’s bright acrylics depict a multiethnic classroom full of all the right impedimenta (computer, chalkboard, reading corner) and presided over by a white, bespectacled, pixie-cut woman" in a critical review that ended, "It’s too bad, though, that neither author nor illustrator chose to break the stereotype just a teensy bit".